Smoke and Mirrors
by MakeYourBodyaCanvas
Summary: Sunny Slaughter had been in Forks for less than a year and she was surprised by the fact that she actually liked the small town. She liked the hospitality, the lower cost of living, and that there was less traffic. Everything was finally falling into place until a new family moved to town and put Sunny's life at jeopardy after someone discovered a secret that wasn't theirs to tell.
1. Chapter 1

**Smoke and Mirrors:  
** _ **Sunny Slaughter had been in Forks for less than a year and she was pleasantly surprised by the fact that she actually liked the small town. She liked the hospitality, the lower cost of living, how she easily stayed informed and that there was less traffic. Everything was finally falling into place until a new family moved to town and put Sunny's life at jeopardy after someone discovered a secret that wasn't theirs to tell.**_

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 **Why am I uploading another story, you might ask? Well, it's because I'm an impatient person. That's it. I'm just shitty at waiting.**

 **This is a F/M/F story. This thought literally just hit me, because while I have never read** _Life and Death: Twilight Reimagined_ **, I have heard of Royal Hale. So I thought it would be cool to actually give Rosalie a twin, cause, c'mon, two extremely hot Hale siblings in one story? Uh, yes, please, with a side of another extra hot character. So, yes, while this is a Rosalie/OC/Royal story,** _ **there will be no incest!**_ **I just want to make that perfectly clear right now. Yet, who knows? I have a crazy mind that likes to walk on the wild (insane) side, and so do some of my readers and reviewers. Just remember that this is fanfiction.**

 **And for those of you who take this website a little too seriously with keeping things canon, let me just remind you what fiction means.** Fiction—literature in the form of prose, especially short stories and novels, that describes imaginary events and people. Invention or fabrication as opposed to fact. **Let's all take a second to thank Google.**

 **And this story does contain some Rosalie/OFC elements, so for all of those who've read my other fem/fem story, repeat after me:** This story does involve **female on female action and romance**. So if that's not your kind of thing, or it goes against anything you believe, please leave now. Any comments that I think are rude will be deleted and you will be reported. **(That also applies for the polyamorous relationship aspect of the story).**

 **Annnnnnd that's all, folks. Enjoy the story.**

 _*More information, along with credits and disclaimers, can be found below._

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 **Chapter 1:**

 _Forks, Washington  
September, 2002  
_  
You invite the new girl to the party. That way you can get all the juicy gossip about her. That was the basic rule.

Sunny was sitting in English class, listening to two brunettes plan a party for the weekend. She couldn't help but hear them. They sat directly in front her, chatting through the entire half hour. The teacher's soft, apologetic voice was nothing compared to the excited whispers of the teenaged girl's. They had turned around immediately once they had taken their seats, eyeing Sunny like she was some sort of exotic animal, but at the same time sizing her up, trying to determine if she was a threat to their beauty and popularity. After they saw whatever it was they liked, they had wasted no time in introducing themselves (Sunny had already forgotten—she was terrible with names) and gave her an invitation to their party. She accepted the piece of paper nicely, but it only ended up getting crumbled into a ball and shoved into the bottom of her bag.

She didn't care for parties. The last one she had attended had been a disaster.

She was full of contradictory feelings, though. A part of her wanted to be as far away from the two girls as possible. She wanted them to see her as a witch—a freak—and hoped that they would never talk to her again because bad things always happened when people stuck around her for too long. At the same time there was a terrible longing inside of her. Like she wanted to be accepted. Long before Forks, and before the Institute, Sunny remembered life at her old school and how much she wanted to fit in. She just wanted people to let her in. She wanted a place of her own that didn't involve her being the freak. All she had wanted was friends and people to see her for who she actually was; not for the odd things that she could do.

But that would never happen. The two girls would quickly learn that being associated with Sunny would tarnish their reputation. No one would want the freak at their party. And Sunny, after pushing everyone away, would make sure that everyone thought she didn't want to go in the first place.

And she forced herself not to care. It was just how it was supposed to go. It was her second to the last year of high school. She could do it. Then, after graduation, she would finally be on her own and live her life in comfortable bliss. She would move on to another town, maybe even to another country, and start all over.

But that was another problem, of course. Starting over meant going through the same old process once again. She would have to push people away, but selfishly use those who would be able to sustain her needs until they were met, and then she would leave them high and dry. Out of the blue she would stop responding to their phone calls and ignore them if she ever saw them out in public. She would always have to be the bitch to save them from herself.

There was no escape. Maybe college would've been different, but that door had closed sometime ago. She had screwed up her scholarship, and with her mysterious disappearance and even more mysterious return, no college would ever dare to even look at her forms. Besides, it was best if she stayed away from large crowds—and she didn't have that type of money. She could make due without college. Maybe she would enroll into a trade school one day.

For the first time in a long time, the years stretched out for Sunny; but it all seemed as bleak and dull as the little town she was currently residing in. It was endless loneliness, and endless hours of listening to people make plans that didn't involve her. Endless seclusion. Endless aching and wishing that she could control the minds of the people around her and make them see that she wasn't a freak.

All the while she was thinking, she was unconsciously fixating on the different energies that were coursing through the room. She didn't know what she was doing at first. Her body was acting on its own—her brain hadn't been involved at all. The person next to her gripped the edge of the table, attempting to steady their self as they closed their eyes to find that inner balance.

Sunny quickly took control and drew back.

It was getting worse. She had almost no control over her body anymore. When she was hungry, and whether she knew it or not, her energy would attach itself to others like some sort of parasite.

And the worst part about it was that she craved it. Just like an addict trying to find their next hit, Sunny's body craved auric energy, but there was one major difference—Sunny needed to feed off of others to survive. Death wasn't in the cards for her just yet.

As her essence snapped back and greedily gave her what she needed, Sunny felt like she was going down for the count. It was like she was encompassing the person's emotions. The good, the bad, and everything in between—she hated that feeling. It was a familiar one, though. And it happened every time she unconsciously fed off of people, and it was the reason why people considered her a freak.

She had an effect on people.

And the vibes were unsettling.

She took complete control of herself with a jerk. The twisting ball in the pit of her stomach felt sickening.

She didn't want to affect anyone because it was dangerous. If the person's aura was sweet enough—with just the right mixture of green and gold, and black and purple—Sunny could become addicted. Then her energy would seek out that person and feed off of them until there was nothing left to take...until that host was dead.

A repeat of her childhood would devastate her.

But she could feel her body vibrating, wanting more of the energy around her.

Albeit the feeling of tiredness and boredom drenched the room, majority of the people were radiating positive energy. And Sunny could feel her body fighting for control so it could take more and more until it was satisfied.

Energy was what made up the existence of everything in life and it came in waves that flowed through the universe. Everyone gave out certain vibrational frequencies, which was what attracted the many events that occurred in one's day-to-day life. Energy came in many different colors and forms, and every emotion that was created gave out a specific type of energy that was different from the other types created.

And then there was positive energy. Creating a positive emotion in someone by doing something nice for the person was one way to get positive energy forming. When you create a positive emotion in someone, you were allowing the person you were creating that emotion with, to release positive energy which came in the colors of yellows, pinks, oranges, purples, greens, etc. It varied with the person and the positive emotion being felt. That was the kind of energy you wanted to create. While it did take longer and more work to create that kind of energy, the results in the long run were much more rewarding and you would feel better physically.

And positive energy was addicting. When feeding off the positive energy created, Sunny felt the same positive emotions of that person she was feeding off of. Sunny was naturally drawn towards that type of energy without even trying half of the time. It made her feel good physically in the sense that she could think clearer, she was less prone to becoming ill, she felt good about herself, and it made taking energy ten times easier than it would be if she were to choose to go take the alternative route of creating negative energy in others and in her environment.

Taking energy through negative emotions was the fastest and easiest ways to feed off of energy, but it was also dangerous to Sunny and dangerous to those she were feeding off of.

Frustration and anger were easier to get a hold of because she could take their energy immediately and produce large results by continuing to push that person's buttons. But the consequences of taking energy in that manner could result in many ways that were not so pleasant. It made her feel ill, and depressed, and even more temperamental than she already was.

So the upside was that she could replenish her energy faster, but the downside was that it diminished just as fast as well.

It wasn't enough, though.

It never was.

Her body constantly needed to feed; to suck the life force right out everyone she came in contact with and she was tired. It was the most terrible part of Sunny's ability. She didn't mind seeing people's auras or knowing what they were feeling. It was almost sickening to have a parasitic mindset.

But it was how she survived.

Right now, she couldn't do anything. Getting up in the middle of class would only draw even more attention to herself, and that was the last thing she wanted. Then again, maybe being known as the new girl who had randomly left the classroom in a hurry wasn't such a bad idea. It would certainly get people off her case quicker.

Forks was still too much of a small town, though. Sometimes large cities were the best places to live because there were just too many people. But laying low in a small town was the better way to go at the moment. And Sunny didn't think she was ready to face such a large quantity of people again so soon. She needed time to compose herself.

Sunny rolled her eyes. Her life was such a sob story, it was nauseating. Since when had she allowed herself to feel sorry for the shitty hand she had been dealt? She rolled with punches. She had ever since her mother died. Since then, Sunny learned that she had to keep getting up or she'd become a doormat.

A disturbance drew Sunny out of her head. The teacher's voice was soft and soothing—so much so that one could actually fall asleep to it.

An Asian kid brought in a pink slip of paper.

Sunny recognized the boy. He had shoved his camera in her face. She was apparently going to be on the front of the school's paper.

The teacher took the slip and looked up until her eyes found Sunny.

"Ms. Slaughter, the principal would like to see you."

Sunny closed her notebook that was still nothing but empty pages. She shoved it into her bag and kept her back straight. Her head was held high and she walked out the front door with confidence. She looked down at the slip and took notice that her presence was demanded immediately.

"Is she already in trouble?" A snide voice whispered. Suddenly, the room was like a wildfire as speculations were thrown about.

Sunny didn't care, though. She would let them think what they wanted. It was one of the easiest ways to get them off her back. She went out of the door with the Asian kid, glad that he had ditched the camera.

But was she really in trouble? Probably. Her record was messy at best even without her disappearing act. She had been a difficult child, that she would admit. Children were so much more open to the world, and mixed with her ability to feed off of others energy, Sunny had been a rollercoaster of emotions. Doctors had said that she had been showing signs of being a manic bipolar, but it hadn't been until a renown psychic had determined that Sunny was telepathic. And that was when everything had started to make sense.

But that had also made her a murder.

"What did you do?" The Asian kid asked as they reached the office. "I mean...I doubt that you're in trouble. He probably just wants to talk to you."

Sunny looked at the boy from the corner of her eyes. He was okay looking she supposed. A lot of shiny black hair, dark slanted eyes, but they were soft—almost like Lewis.

Sunny got rid of that thought as soon as it came. Lewis was miles away living his life with the People of the Crystal, helping others like them. She didn't want to disturb him.

But the boy definitely wasn't Lewis because he would had never looked at Sunny the way the boy was. She had brown, wavy hair that stopped a few inches above her shoulders and was parted into free, wavy bangs. She also had very large honey golden brown eyes and tanned, smooth skin.

She was certainly her mother's child. Her father had blond hair and sea blue eyes. He was also pale and fair skinned. Her mother had been the brunette with dark chocolate eyes and skin the color of autumn. Her mother had been beautiful, and according to everyone who had once known her, Sunny looked like her carbon copy.

She had perfected her father's deathly stare, though. And she turned it on the boy.

He went white.

The typical emotions of nervousness, curiosity and underlying caution came to her. It was how people usually responded when Sunny used that stare. Her father had only taught her it so she could ward off boys, but she used it on everyone.

She missed her father terribly. He had always been the only person who believed in her. He use to say that what she had was a gift given to her by faeries. But people said otherwise. She had heard it all ever since she was young—she had the power of the devil. She could do things that only demons would do.

So sometimes, like now, Sunny used her abilities to her advantage. She stared at the Asian kid until she properly manipulated his nervousness. He gave an awkward chuckle and stepped back. Sunny looked away and walked into the office.

A triumph was a triumph in Sunny's eyes, no matter what means she used to win. It hurt that she had to make people weary of her, but she knew that it would end up saving a lot of people in the long run.

The lady at the front desk pointed towards the principal's office and Sunny prepared herself for the examination she was about to undergo.

Mr. Greene was a plump man, but rather short. Sunny gathered the impression that he suffered from short man syndrome.

He looked up. "Ms. Slaughter, please, have a seat."

Sunny did as she was told and glanced around the office. His diplomas were hung up on the wall behind him and she assumed that the picture frames on his desk were filled with smiling faces of his family. The room itself was stuffy and dull, lacking character and emotion. She didn't feel all too welcomed and she gathered that he didn't really care how she felt in his presence.

"How is your first day going so far?"

Sunny blinked. "Just fine. Why am I here?"

She highly doubted that he had pulled her out of class just to have a little casual chit chat.

And Mr. Greene didn't seem to have a problem with her straightforwardness. "I've been looking over your file, Ms. Slaughter, and quite frankly, your past is very concerning."

So she was in trouble, kind of. But he was just now getting around to her file? She sat up straight in her chair like her father had taught her. Good posture was important.

"You have my condolences," he started off. "No one should lose their mother so young." Sunny nodded her head in appreciation. "I can overlook your behavior as a juvenile, but I'm rather concerned about what happened when you disappeared."

Of course he was. Everyone wanted to know what really happened to her, and only her father knew the truth.

"With all due respect, sir, I'd rather not talk about it."

It was easy to remember what happened to her, but that didn't mean she wanted to relive it. If she had it her way, she would've erased those experiences from her memory.

"You went to an institute," Mr. Greene said, ignoring Sunny. "Can you tell me what for?"

It suddenly dawned on Sunny what the principal was hinting at. She bit back a smile.

"It was an institute for higher learning," Sunny said, and it wasn't a complete lie. "It was a place for those who excelled at things other than educational purposes."

Mr. Greene seemed to be put at ease that he hadn't just accepted a crazy person into his school, but Sunny's words still had him confused. "And what do you mean by that?"

"It was your regular vision screening. They showed everyone in the room letters and we had to write them down. The letters got smaller and smaller until no one could see them anymore. Except for me."

Mr. Greene leaned forward. "What did you do?"

"I kept writing."

"And what does that mean? You've got good eyesight?"

Sunny couldn't help but laugh. "No, um—for the last twenty frames the letters hadn't been there. But I still saw letters."

"How is that possible?"

"I was seeing letters, just not with my eyes."

The room was perfectly silent.

Sunny's cool exterior didn't show it, but her heart was erratically beating in her chest.

"There was someone in the room next door," Sunny said. "He was looking at the chart. That's how I still saw the letters. I saw them through his eyes."

"That's impossible," Mr. Greene said faintly.

"It's not, actually." Sunny remembered what Joyce had told her. "It's called remote viewing. It's the practice of seeking impressions about a distant or unseen target, purportedly using extrasensory perception or "sensing" with the mind."

"So you're—what? Psychic?"

"Yes," Sunny said. There was no pride in her voice, though. "If I tried hard enough I could read your thoughts, but that takes a lot out of me. I would definitely need to feed then."

Mr. Greene's eyebrows rose to his receding hairline.

"Feed?"

Sunny grimaced at her slip up. "There's more than just one psychic ability, Mr. Greene. I have friends who all do different things. One has premonitions, another can heal by using life energy; one can communicate with animals and control them, and another can move objects with his mind."

Mr. Greene gazed at Sunny intently with those light eyes of his. "What can you do?"

Sunny looked down at her hands in her lap. She twisted her fingers together and sucked on her teeth. She had never been so open and honest to a normal stranger before. "They call me and another likewise psychic vampires. I'm a telepath, and when I use my power on minds that are weaker than mine, I drain those people of their life energy."

"You kill people?" A rush of emotions had Mr. Greene itching to get out of his seat.

Sunny shook her head and quickly spoke. "No, I don't kill people, Mr. Greene, but there have been recorded incidents of that happening with others like me." She had left out the part of needing to drain people of their energy to survive.

"I first discovered my ability when I was little girl," Sunny continued, but she didn't go into great detail. "I was always a sensitive child and I would easily take on the strongest emotion in the room."

Her ability had distracted her from doing well in school, but her father could do nothing but hire her a tutor after hours. He worked full time and since he had been their only source of income he couldn't withdraw her from school and teach her at home. Sunny had to work extra harder just to keep up with even the most laziest people in her classes, and she quickly developed temperament issues not only because of what she could do, but because peers and teachers alike started to treat her like an invalid. And from her anger came the need to drain people.

And she was always angry. At herself, at other people, at the world and everything in between.

"That's why you've developed something of an attitude problem," Mr. Greene added softly. He wasn't scared of her, which Sunny was thankful for, just very curious and slightly unnerved. But unnerved was good. It was a whole lot better than fear. "You're naturally rebellious."

Sunny glared at the floor. People didn't like rambunctious young ladies. It made them come across as bitches. "So you know all about me," she said. "I'm a freak and I've got an attitude problem. So what? Are you going to kick me out, or turn me over to the government?"

"You are not a freak," Mr. Greene all but snapped. Sunny was shocked. "So you've got an attitude. Plenty of people your age have bad attitudes. I'm a religious man, Ms. Slaughter, and I firmly believe that God doesn't put anything in our path that we can't overcome. And out of all the people in the world who could've had what you can do, he decided that you were the only one who could handle it. It's clear that you don't see it that way, but you've got a gift, an amazing gift. Why, it could be used for so much good. You're unusually wonderful, Ms. Slaughter."

In Sunny's experiences, unusual was never put in the same sentence as wonderful. It normally wasn't a good thing.

"People can only dream of doing what you can that they make movies about it," Mr. Greene said. "I highly doubt that there are many of you out there."

"There's only ten in the United States," Sunny admitted. It had actually been twelve, but Sasha and Parté were no longer aware or human-like.

"Only ten?" Mr. Greene asked in astonishment.

"Ten high schoolers. Ten people just like me. We have different abilities, though, so no two people can do the same thing no matter how similar they might be." While Sunny and one other boy had the same issue of draining people's life energy, only Sunny could read other people's minds if she concentrated hard enough. "The institute was supposed to help us control and learn more about what we could do. But they had just wanted to experiment on us."

"They experimented on you?" Mr. Greene looked at her in alarm.

"Experiment is a strong word. They used us." Among other things that she wouldn't be disclosing anytime soon. "We were tested on our psychic abilities, but we were warned from the start that the Institute was dangerous, and even the housekeeper told us to get out as soon as possible, and that was before she went into coma." Sunny paused and fidgeted in her seat. She was building up to something big. "We obviously became suspicious and began to believe the warnings about the Institute. We investigated and found a secret passageway that contained plans to turn us into psychic weapons to sell to major corporations, and a file about a previous project where other psychics had been tested on and were 'terminated'."

" _Terminated_?"

"They had participated in the previous project, but their powers weren't strong enough to withstand it. Majority of them went insane, but some were reduced to the point of mental retardation."

Or something much worse.

But Sunny shrugged it off. Neither she nor the others had the ability to rewind time and undo the damage that had been done.

Mr. Greene shook his head. "Why would you ever agree to go in the first place?"

"There were benefits, too. We were sent to one of the best schools in San Carlos to continue our education, and they would do testing every afternoon for an hour or two a day. The real deal breaker was that once we had all graduated from high school, we would all get our own scholarship to the college of our choice. It was a very generous amount."

"Playing on your future like that was smart," Mr. Greene said. He sneered at the thought, though. "Smart, but also despicable."

Sunny couldn't stop the smile tugging at her lips. She had Mr. Greene all wrong. He was a kind man who cared, you just had to give him the chance.

"Seeing six zeros wasn't all too bad, though," she said jokingly with a sliver of a smile. "But we were helping science move forward. We were breaking down the walls, and then we could start all over. Build ourselves new lives. We could finally go to school without anyone knowing who we were and just be ordinary."

That was all they had ever wanted. And while they grass didn't look greener, and it wasn't all spectacular from what they saw, it beat being known as the town freak. Anything was better than being that.

Mr. Greene smiled. "I'm glad to say that you are a Spartan, Ms. Slaughter."

"Don't be," Sunny said weakly. "I'll cause problems soon enough."

Mr. Greene looked at her, startled.

"Attitude issues," Sunny said as a reminder. It would be a matter of time until she being sent to the office every few weeks.

"Ah, about that," Mr. Greene started. He opened his drawer and dug through it to hand her a piece of paper that was in a folder. "What do you think of counselors?"

Sunny looked over the paper. "That they're full of crock shit."

Mr. Greene failed miserably at reprimanding her about her language because of that twinkle in his eyes. "Don't you want to work on your anger issues?"

Didn't she? Only when she was fighting with her stepmother and her father would give her a disappointingly heartbreaking look that made her want to punch the woman in the face. But she would never do that. She had dreamed of it, but her father would probably have a heart attack by that point.

She never thought of seeing a counselor, though. She had been to sessions for anger management classes where she had to sit in a circle with other people who all would take turns and share what led them there, but those classes never helped. Which was a bummer because they were either cheap or free, and she could keep it anonymous. That way her father never had to find out, but it was different with a counselor. She was a minor, she'd have to get permission from her parent or legal guardian….

Sunny sighed loudly.

Her father would think the worst and would be calling her phone every minute of the day. Her legal guardianship was her aunt and uncle, and the latter would be against the notion entirely. He didn't trust shrinks and he wouldn't want the town to know that there was something wrong with his niece.

"It's just my dad and uncle. Ever since the Institute, they've been less trusting of who they let get into my mind."

Mr. Greene looked sympathetic. While he didn't know Sunny's father, he was well acquainted with her uncle. The man had been brilliant, a philosophy professor who had written books and made it on the _New York Times_ bestsellers list. But that all changed when he discovered that his wife couldn't have children. That's when he had gotten dull. He still taught at the local community college, but he wasn't the same person he had been fifteen years ago. It also turned him into a hard man, almost militaristic in a sense of that he didn't take crap from anyone and he despised bullshitters. He told people the God's honest truth and he expected the same in return. But it shouldn't have came as a surprise that he would be protective of his only niece. He absolutely adored Sunny, no matter how much of a hard ass he really was. And Sunny knew that he came from a place of love; he just showed it in his own special way.

And if he didn't want her to see a counselor, than she wouldn't see one. She valued his opinion a lot.

"It won't happen," she said.

Mr. Greene was looking down at his stubby hands that were folded together. "Sunny, if this were to help you, don't you think they'd want you to go? To better yourself?"

Well, when it was put that way, yeah. But Sunny still shook her head. Now her mind was filling up with doubt.

She felt herself losing control.

"Wouldn't you like not to be so angry all the time?"

Sunny looked at him.

The possibility of not being angry every waking second never occurred to her. Anger had always been apart of her and she couldn't help it when it all became too much to handle. She never realized how bad it was until it was over.

"I think you can do it," Mr. Greene said with all the confidence in the world. "And I wouldn't send you to just any counselor."

Sunny opened her mouth, but a terrible noise from the hallway startled them.

It was a crashing and a snapping and a God awful scream all in one. And it was a loud noise, so loud that the screams could still be heard over the frantic voices.

Sunny and Mr. Greene jumped up, and the round principal made it to the door first. He rushed out of the office into the hallway with Sunny following.

People were running towards the main stairwell, ignoring the teachers that were trying to hold them back. Sunny was almost trampled on by a herd of freshmen. The lights were flickering above them and all Sunny could see were the shadows of people who crowded around the bottom of the stairs. She followed behind Mr. Greene as he shoved his way through the crowd of teenagers.

A student was laying on the bottom of the steps. Their leg was facing the wrong way, the knee was touching the floor and the heel of their foot was pointed up towards the ceiling in an awkward, crooked position. It looked as if someone had twisted the person's leg flawlessly. Sunny recognized the person; it was the tall girl who had sat next to her in English, the one she had been accidentally feeding off of.

The girl's glasses had been knocked off her face, and no doubt stamped on by the students who had rushed to her aid. She was still on the ground, trying to clutch her leg, but it was too painful. Her screams only seemed to get louder and Sunny got a sickening feeling in the pit of her stomach.

A junior tugged at Mr. Greene's arm. "I saw everything, Mr. Greene! Angela was just walking down the steps and then she just fainted and….it all happened so fast! No one could catch her."

"That's her bone sticking out," Mr. Greene inhaled sharply. "It's broken in half. Don't move her yet! Don't move her!" The principal continued to bark out orders, but Sunny wasn't listening.

She was staring at the girl, feeling her auric energy. She hadn't tasted such sweet energy since she had accidentally feed off of a child—it was unusually kind for a teenager.

People around her were still yelling, running. Sunny hardly noticed them. She didn't even know when the ambulance had shown up. She didn't hear the sirens.

All she could do was stare at the girl. It was Sunny's fault. She felt it in her gut. There was no coincidence that Sunny had been attracted to the girl's life energy, and the second she had gotten antsy the girl fainted out of the blue. She wasn't buying it and she wouldn't let herself believe that because this was what she was afraid of.

Even now, with her essence filled with unbearable pain, it was still sweet. It was calling out to Sunny like a moth to a flame, and the girl's vulnerable state only made it harder to resist. But Sunny shook her head and grounded her teeth together. She wouldn't give in, she couldn't. The girl's life depended on it.

"Please, no," Sunny whispered. She clenched her first together. Somebody steadied her.

Sirens were still wailing in the background. The paramedics had pushed their way towards the girl and were now placing her on the stretcher as gently as possible.

She knew this would happen. The poor girl's kind soul was the reason she was in such pain. Why couldn't Sunny control it? Why hadn't she realized what she was doing? Why couldn't she just see and feel everyone's aura instead of feeding, and draining, and harming and almost killing people? How could her ability be seen as a gift at all when all it did was cause pain, so much fucking pain….?

"Do you need to sit down?" The person who had steadied Sunny was Mr. Greene. She hadn't seen him move towards her.

He noticed that Sunny was shivering, and he knew that it wasn't from the cold. Her breathing was labored and she started to draw blood from her palms.

"Did you mean it, about not sending me to just any counselor?" Sunny couldn't bring herself to look away from the damage she had caused.

Mr. Greene watched as the paramedics rolled Angela out of the building. He looked back at Sunny. "Yes, I meant it."

"You have to promise that they're top notch."

Mr. Greene looked at her, the way a parent looked at a scared child. "I promise he'll try, Sunny."

"Then I'll do it. My dad and uncle will just have to deal with it."

"I'm glad," Mr. Greene said softly. He guided her towards the office doors. "Wait in my office. I want to make sure that Angela is in good hands, and then we'll look over the paper and discuss it."

 **~Page Break~**

That night, Sunny had an odd vivid dream. She was standing in a clearing, everything was covered in snow. The sky above her was clear, not a single cloud in the crystal blue oasis. There were red, milky eyes staring at her and Sunny could almost feel the intensity of them, the chill that ran down her spine.

From behind her, someone called her name when she tentatively placed her hand into cold, marble ones. She imagined that she was making a deal with the devil himself. But when she turned around to see who had called her, the dream had ended.

* * *

 **Information/Credits/Disclaimers:**

—All characters and events belong to Stephenie Meyer and to the publisher, Little, Brown and Company. Events from the movie(s) belong to the production and distribution companies.

—Information about auric energy came from The Mind Unleashed (Beta) and the article _Psychic Vampires and the Use of Etheric Energy_.

—Lewis, Joyce, Sasha, Parté, the Institute and the People of the Crystal are all characters and a place from L. J. Smith's _Dark Visions_ Trilogy. It was published in 1994–1995 by Simon & Schuster.

—This will not be a crossover, but L. J. Smith's characters will make an appearance from time to time.

—Polyamory means having multiple loving relationships, usually, but not always sexual. Unlike polygamy, people in polyamorous relationships stress the importance of open communication and equal relationships between partners whether male or female. Usually all parties involved know about the other partners and choose to be in those relationships. ( _Source: Mossie Black_. ).

—This chapter was not overlooked by a beta.

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 **If you liked this chapter, please favorite this story and review. It would be very helpful to get the next chapter going.**

 **Until next time.**


	2. Chapter 2

**A special thank you for all of those who've reviewed, favorited and followed this story. If you haven't done those things already, please do so after reading this chapter. Tell me what you think of it so far. I always love to hear from you guys.**

 **For those of you who have reviewed, my responses are down below once the chapter comes to a close, just an FYI.**

 _*More information, along with credits and disclaimers, can be found below._

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 **Chapter 2:**

 _Forks, Washington_

 _October, 2002_

Sunny was in the courtyard. The warning bell had already rung and there was no one on the lawn who could see her. She was sitting in her car with her eyes closed, breathing in the fresh air.

 _Hey_ , a voice said in her head before she had felt the connection come to life.

Sunny opened her eyes and swallowed hard. The dismal drizzle was all wrong for October, but she hadn't expected any less from Forks with its overcasting skies and thin raining that went on forever.

 _Hey_. She sounded confused and drowsy, like she had been asleep.

 _What's wrong? I can practically feel your stress._

She wanted to shrug it off and chuck it up to nothing, but her entire body vibrated, like something was trying to break free. _It's pretty bad today._

She felt Gabriel shift around in her mind. He was hesitating, not entirely too sure if he should've asked what happened or at least why she was hyperventilating alone in her car during school hours, but he didn't. He just waited for her to calm down.

Sunny took another deep breathe. _Nothing like getting addicted to the pastor's daughter. Do you think I could convince him that I'm not a demon trying to damn her soul?_

Gabriel laughed and nudged her through the connection.

 _Hey, you can't help that her aura is pleasing. But you have to try not to drain her dry because I definitely don't want a reenactment of the Exorcist. I wouldn't be surprised if your head could spin around like that, though. Especially in the mornings—you're down right scary._

Sunny laughed, but it sounded forced and kind of miserable if she was going to be honest. She still was vibrating, like she was going to explode.

 _Look,_ Gabriel said, and his voice was unexpectedly soft. _I know you don't have control of it—believe me, I know that. But you have to try to find an anchor. I know I'm the last person who should be lecturing you, but I'm just saying; if there's an opportunity to help you, you should take it, you know?_

She didn't answer. She had agreed to meet with the counselor to feel the person out, but she wasn't completely sold on the idea. It was almost too good to be true.

The last bell rang, echoing through the intercoms that were positioned outside. She felt Gabriel poking around again. _Are you going to history?_

 _I'm going to head home._

 _Least you've gone a month without skipping._

 _It's a new personal record._

It wasn't something one would usually be proud of, but for those like Sunny and Gabriel, it was a huge accomplishment.

 _I guess I'll talk to you later, then. Are you sure you're ok?_

 _I'm fine._

She felt Gabriel nod, but she knew that he wasn't convinced. He wouldn't push, though. He valued his privacy just as much as Sunny valued hers. They knew when it was time to ask the hard questions and insist on an answer, but they also knew when to back off and give the other space.

Sunny started to feel better as she pulled out of the parking lot, getting further away from the school, and further away from her new found addiction. She turned on her windshield wipers as the rain started to come down steadily, thinking. She couldn't help but wonder why things always happened to her. And why did a sweet, kind girl have to suffer? Life just sucked.

But, coffee always made it better. Maybe she'd settle for some hot chocolate filled to the brim with marshmallows.

The air was cold and damped, making her breath come out in puffs of smoke. She cranked up the heat and it made her feel a little better. Still, she couldn't shake the feelings she was getting. It was almost like a nagging, but something was up. At school. In the world. The pastor had made a public appearance at the school to inform everyone that his daughter was well. Then he started to say the Hail Mary and Sunny couldn't help but feel on edge. She could've sworn that the look he had given her made her feel like she had been a demon in his midst. He was looking for someone to blame, though, that much was obvious. He didn't believe that his daughter simply tripped. And Sunny's whole body felt heavy, like she was coming down with something.

One thing was clear—she needed to do whatever it took to avoid being noticed. The rain fell steadily on her car, making her anxiety flare up for some reason. Maybe things were bad, but they always were. She was use to that. The real problem was that she had a feeling that Forks was in a rude awakening.

 **~Page Break~**

In another, earlier life, in the Highlands of Scotland, when bedtime stories were very real, the Clan Slaughter of Skye were just simple farmers.

In the early seventeenth century famine was relatively common. The invasions of the 1640s had a profound impact on the Scottish economy, with the destruction of crops and the disruption of markets resulting in some of the most rapid price rises of the century.

Under the Commonwealth, the country was relatively highly taxed, but gained access to English markets. After the Restoration, the formal frontier with England was re-established, along with its customs duties. Economic conditions were generally favourable as landowners promoted better tillage and cattle-raising. The monopoly of royal burghs over foreign trade was partially ended by an Act, leaving them with the old luxuries of wines, silk, spices and dyes and opening up trade of increasingly significant salt, coal, corn and hides and imports from the Americas. The English Navigation Acts limited the ability of the Scots to engage in what would have been lucrative trading with England's growing colonies, but these were often circumvented, with Glasgow becoming an increasingly important commercial centre, opening up trade with the American colonies—importing sugar from the West Indies and tobacco from Virginia and Maryland.

The closing decade of that century saw the generally favourable economic conditions that had dominated since the Restoration come to an end. There was a slump in trade with the Baltic and France, caused by French protectionism and changes in the Scottish cattle trade, followed by four years of failed harvests, known as the "seven ill years". The result was severe famine and depopulation, particularly in the north. The famines of the 1690s were seem as particularly severe partly because famine had become relatively rare in the second half of the seventeenth century, with only one year of dearth and the shortages of the 1690s would be the last of their kind.

But the growth of industries didn't produce enough good jobs, so during the nineteenth century, about two million Scots emigrated to North America.

Sunny's ancestors had emigrated because of poverty. They had saw no hope of ever breaking out of their set place in the class-system which existed in Britain, but in America, a man could make something of himself, regardless of his background.

So they had settled in Maryland, making a living anyway they could as farmers, soldiers, blacksmiths, cattle-ranchers, lumbermen, factory workers, whatever way they could succeed. The uphill battle hadn't been over yet, though. The Scots were looked down upon by the English, Dutch and Germans, who saw them as being less civilized, orderly and less interested in bettering themselves materially through hard work. They were thought to be good fighters and in that capacity they were often set out on the frontier to act as a first line of defence against Native American attacks. The Scots quickly disproved the stereotypical views of the English and other colonists by becoming enormously successful in the New World.

And they had made the best of it. Most of the Scots who came to America turned out to be far more successful than they would have been if they stayed at home. At the worst, they were no worse off than they would have been had they not migrated. America was the land of opportunity while Britain was a land of privilege, status and class-systems that were carved in stone.

But the only life Sunny knew was the one she had lived in Maryland. She knew her family's history on both sides, but she had never been interested to learn more. She just knew that her family was now generally born, raised and buried without ever feeling compelled to leave Maryland. Everything they had needed was already there. Even her mother hadn't felt the need to return to her small town life once she got out. Sunny could barely remember visiting family in Forks, even though her father swore that they use to drive down every holiday. He claimed that she had been too young to recall.

So she took a different route to get home. She felt like taking a drive and she was more than positive that every road in Forks were connected so it was impossible for her to get lost.

The one thing she missed about Maryland was how big it was. No one ever batted an eyelash at newcomers, but it was a completely different story in Forks. Because who would want to move to Forks? It was dull, and grey, and boring. It was the type of town that was impossible to get out of, but when you had the opportunity to leave, you better hold on tight and never let go. Forks would embed itself into all the people who were born here, and it would be the place where many of them would die. Everyone looked out for their own, and they weren't too trusting of strangers; and if Sunny knew anything, it was that small towns typically didn't like people to be different.

She could sense that things usually got tense in Forks when outsiders moved in. Being different certainly would put an even bigger target on her back, but Sunny knew how to be careful. She would soon enough become close to invisible. She would play her part.

Her uncle wasn't going to be happy, though. He was stickler for the rules and that included not skipping school. Sunny's aunt had known that it was only a matter of time before the ditching would being. But sometimes she sucked it up and dealt with it because she couldn't run away from everything in life. Sometimes you had to play a game even when no one was watching. That way it was easier to pretend all the bullshit was true. But at the end of the day it was just a select few of people who know the truth and acted like there was wrong.

She passed the only church in town. She wondered if it was built on consecrated ground. She had never been to church, the people who belonged to the closest one by her house had bought into the gossip that followed Sunny anywhere she went. Her parents, who weren't active church-goers themselves, didn't want to expose her to such cruelties at such a young age, but Sunny always heard them, and she sure as hell always felt their emotions. Her favorite one was that her skin would blister like the way people get a bad sunburn if she were to ever step two feet inside a churchyard.

When she was younger, she had gone to a catholic preschool. Both her parents had worked during the day, and the babysitter was getting costly, so they had enrolled her into the nearest preschool that they could find. Unfortunately, it was ran by the very bias and bigot church that wanted nothing to do with Sunny. She never did find out if the ground was consecrated.

After pre-k, Sunny's family had never tried to integrate themselves into the local church community. They had settled for looking like the family with the devil child who didn't want anything to do with their Lord and savior Jesus Christ.

She drove past End of Road Road (she literally had to do a double take because she refused to believe that anyone would actually name a road that, let alone have people back them up on such a ridiculous name) and barely tapped her breaks to go over the speed bump.

It was nothing but empty lots and trees. She shuddered to think what it looked like at night. She could definitely make a good campfire, possessed, haunting story out of the road. About grinning, rotting things that came up out of the ground during the dead of night and walked the back road in search of someone passing by. People would laugh and say it wasn't scary or original enough, but that was beside the point. Stories were just stories, but that didn't mean people would want to go there.

Halfway down the road, Sunny could see the opening towards town and put the pedal to the metal. A cop car was sitting at the edge of it and she didn't have enough time to slow down. She curses when the lights flashed and the siren turned on. She pulled over to the side.

The cop had a mustache and curly brown hair; chocolate brown eyes and stood about six feet tall, and had an average build. Sunny took notice of the fact that he wasn't a bad looking man when she rolled her window down.

"Shouldn't you be in school?" He asked as he came closer to inspect the speeder. He instantly seemed to have known who Sunny was.

Sunny forced a smile. "I'm not feeling too well." The dizziness was almost gone, but she still felt weak and tired.

"Yeah, you don't look too good, kid," the cop said as he gave her the once over. The corner of his mouth twitched up. "I'll let this one slide, but do you know how fast you were going?"

Sunny shook her head.

"The speed limit is forty." He pointed to the sign right at the edge of the crossing. "You were doing sixty."

"Sorry, I'm use to speeding. Old habits die hard."

That made the cop smile, which improved the age lines on his face. "I don't know how they run things in Maryland, but in Forks we take the speed limit very seriously. Deers will wreck your car worst than anything else on God's green earth." He pulled out a black notepad and flipped it opened. "License and registration, please."

Sunny handed them over without even rolling an eye. It was no surprise that Forks took their laws seriously because she doubted anything exciting or dangerous ever happened. Besides, why would anyone need to go fast when everything was just a few minutes drive away? It was nothing like Maryland where your destination was anywhere between a couple minutes to an hour.

The rain pattered on. Sunny drummed her fingers against her steering wheel, relishing in the fact that the dizziness had stopped. And it was all due to the cop who had pulled her over. He had such an easy going aura that it was almost soothing.

"Here you go, Sunny," the cop said as he handed her back her things and a ticket. "Welcome to Forks by the way, I'm Chief Swan."

Sunny smiled gingerly. "Nice to meet you, Chief, and I'm sorry in advance for all the times that you'll have to pull me over. I got a bad case of led foot."

The Chief huffed, but Sunny was positive he was trying to conceal a chuckle. "Just don't run anyone over and we'll be just fine."

Sunny tried to keep a straight face as she nodded. It certainly wasn't a warning, and it damn sure wasn't a threat. His voice held amusement. He looked down at his watch and turned away from her.

Sunny watched as he got in his car. He waved to her as he drove off. She was mindful to put her blinker on and watched her speed as she drove down the street. She kept a watchful eye out for deer now, too. A small, fearful part of herself was constantly checking her mirrors to make sure that he wasn't following her. She half expected him to come out of nowhere, trailing behind her, but every time she checked, there was nothing there.

On Klahndike Boulevard, all the houses were single family styled sitting on a paved, dead end street. A few houses down from Sunny, Mrs. Marsh was hanging a cross on the outside of her front door. Her hair was starting to grey, and it was cut to frame her round, chubby face. She had a cardigan thrown over her shoulders. And as if she sensed someone watching her, she had glanced over her shoulder, and when she saw Sunny she smiled and waved.

Then she went back to making sure that the cross was in the perfect position, as if it were supposed to protect her from the devil himself. If she only knew what one of her neighbors could do, Sunny thought gravely. She opened the door to her house, with the lingering thought that maybe she was a devil instead of a child from Fairie.

 **~Page Break~**

Hours later, she had woke to someone calling her name.

She rolled out of bed with a groan and stumbled to her feet. She tripped over some of her shoes that she had left sitting in the middle of the floor. Her room wasn't messy per say because she could tell you exactly where everything was at, but according to her aunt it wasn't as neat as it should be, especially for a young girl.

Sunny could barely see as she made her way down the hall, and she noticed that it was pitch black outside. She hadn't meant to sleep for that long. But she knew that her uncle was home and that he was responsible for it being so dark inside the house. He had a thing for turning off all the lights and just sitting in the dark. It wasn't anything creepy. He just preferred to sit and watch his shows in the comfort of a dark room.

When she made it into the hallway, she flipped the switch on so she could see where she was going.

"Sunny," he called from the kitchen. "I'd like to have a word with you."

Sunny huffed and trudged towards the kitchen, flipping on another set of lights.

He was sitting at the table, and Sunny could tell from his expression and loosely hanging tie that he had just gotten home from work. And that he hadn't had a decent day. He was a handsome and tall man who appeared to be in his late twenties rather than a forty-four year old. He had brown hair, hazel-green eyes and a slim, but athletic figure. Sunny had seen pictures of her uncle when he was just a young man, trying to figure out what he wanted to do in life, and he had such an open, friendly face, but now it was raw.

He was sorting through the mail, separating the junk mail from bills. His suit coat was thrown over the back of the chair. He didn't glance up as Sunny took the seat right across from him. He seemed to be exasperated, like he just wanted the day to be over with.

"Do you want to tell me why I got a call from the attendance office today?"

"I wasn't feeling good."

"You shouldn't be doing things that could single you out even more. I'm assuming you couldn't switch class periods?"

"I'm too advanced apparently," Sunny said with an eye roll. "Why are you acting like this is a huge crisis? I'm not the first person to ever skip school and no one knows me here."

"Sunny," he said sternly. "Your whole responsibility here is to make sure that they don't ever _see_ you."

And that longing to be accepted returned. "I don't," she started to mumble, but stopped. After a second, she glanced at him. "They don't see me."

He arranged the mail in neat piles of two, lining up the edges. He then got up and grabbed the box of leftover pizza from last night. Sunny wrinkled her nose at the pineapple toppings. She never understood her uncle's obsession with pineapple on his pizza. It was disgusting to her, but she did enjoy drowning her bacon, eggs and sausage in syrup, and her uncle thought that was odd.

After rummaging through the cupboards for a while, he put the pizza back in the back. "Where are all the plates?"

"Paper plates are above the sink," Sunny said when he turned to her.

Sunny's aunt hated it when people still used the ceramic plates when there were perfectly good papered ones to use. So she would hide the ceramic ones until all the papered ones were gone, like it was a game.

He opened the cupboard over the sink and filed through napkins, aluminum foil boxes and lighters before he found a paper plate.

Sunny watched his back as he stood in front of the microwave that was counting down the seconds. He was tense. She could see his aura swirling around in grey colors, but some were vibrant. Stress and annoyance were always odd emotions to see and feel.

"I was thinking," he said as he continued to watch the pizza go round and round. "Alexia James mentioned that it might be nice to have a babysitter watch her kids after school every once in a while since she'd be staying at the office late now. Would you be interested in doing something like that? It'd be a nice way to make some money."

Sunny got the feeling that Alexia hadn't mentioned it, that it was something her uncle had devised all on his own to keep Sunny from wandering all around Forks, and of course Alexia would agree that it was a good idea because what personal assistant would say no to their boss when it was convenient even for them?

When Sunny didn't answer, he turned around. "What's wrong? I think it's a great idea. It might even be a nice start for a career."

"That's just so…. _messed up_." Sunny couldn't believe the words that were coming out of his mouth.

"It'll probably take awhile to get use to being around kids and how….expressive they are, but I think you'll do fine if you'd just try," he said with a sigh. "That really bugs me with you and your aunt. You both take situations and start pointing out what could go wrong. You never go into things with a positive attitude."

Sunny rolled her eyes. She had heard this lecture before a hundred times now. On one side, it was Sunny and her aunt—both were pessimistic realists about everything. Then there was her uncle, who despite the hard blow life had thrown at him, always tried to see the good in the world. And Sunny couldn't do that, she just couldn't. Even when a small part of her wanted to agree with her uncle, she just couldn't bring herself to.

Sunny crossed her arms over her chest and looked away. She didn't want him to see how much his words affected her. Because damn him, she wanted to believe that there was more goodness out in the world than she had seen, and she wanted to believe that anything was possible for her. But, of course, she would never tell him that.

"Uncle Finn, this has nothing to do with giving things a chance. Things aren't magically going to get better, especially if I'm around children. I'm never going to be able to live my life like a _normal_ person."

And she had begrudgingly made peace with that.

His gaze was intense. "Don't ever say that again. None of this is because of what you can do."

"It is because of what I can do." Sunny felt a deep, aching pulse in the middle of her chest, like someone was hitting her. "You don't even treat me the same way you treat Seth."

Seth Clearwater, who was the sweetest child Sunny had ever met, was her uncle's godson.

The sound that came from her uncle was like he was choking on a harsh laugh. "You're not like Seth, or even his sister. I try my best to figure out what you need, but it isn't easy. It's never been obvious if you need space or someone to talk to, but I do try my best. And that's all there is to do—try."

Sunny was going to tell him that putting her in charge of kids wasn't the best, or the smartest thing to do, but then her aunt walked in.

Whitney Stewart was a beautiful woman in her mid forties. She had a light complexion with dark brown eyes and hair to match, worn in several different styles; pulled up, curled or straight. She even had a side fringe once. When she was younger, she was known to have lighter brown tips in her hair. She had a slim figure, and looked so much like her late sister it sometimes hurt to even look at her. She had a visible tattoo on her right shoulder, although she never revealed what its significance was or when she got it.

She stopped in front of the table, then she looked at the two of them. "You don't have to be an ass."

At first, Sunny thought that her aunt was talking to her.

Her uncle turned to face his wife. "There are rules for a reason."

And he meant it. And that meant the Stewart household had a lot of them. Only the Clearwaters could come over because Uncle Finn trusted them and Harry Clearwater seemed to have something of a sixth sense that made him aware of Sunny's ability. A random visitor might find it odd that their niece was constantly having freak panic attacks that eerily looked like a mental breakdown.

When Aunt Whitney started to say something else, Uncle Finn sighed loudly. "Would the two of you please just stop it? It's already such a small town, and this family is just as visible as all others so we need to be careful of the image we portray."

Sunny snorted. "What image? It's not like I soiled your name or something. No one _saw_ me."

"Well, it isn't very wise to leave school grounds during certain hours. Couldn't you have gone to the nurse's office?"

Aunt Whitney put her hands on her hips. "I doubt that woman would know the first thing on how to treat Sunny. It's best if she comes home when there's another repeat."

Sunny winced when her aunt said when. It wasn't an _if_ , it would have been stupid to try and deny that it would never happen it again. But it still made her feel like even more of a freak.

"Well, how about the library? Or a nice, quiet corner?"

"Finn!"

They glared at each other, but neither of them said anything.

Aunt Whitney was the loud one in the family, always shouting and laughing. She had mastered the art of having a wordless argument after being with her husband for so many years, though.

Sunny sat there awkwardly, watching as they continued to communicate just by the way they breathed.

Finally, Uncle Finn scoffed and Aunt Whitney rolled her eyes. She removed her hands from her hips and moved across the kitchen. She threw her arms around his waist, like she was apologizing, and kissed him softly on the lips. They stood there for a moment, peacefully in each other's arms, and Sunny had to look away. She felt like she was imposing on a personal moment, and she didn't like the jealously she was feeling. She was fine with not being normal and having to give up on the things that came with it—she was _absolutely fine_ with that.

But she still repeated it in her head like a prayer for extra measures.

Aunt Whitney pressed her face in his shirt. "You better stop looking for the plates until all the papered ones are gone."

"I wouldn't want to mess up your kitchen, huh?"

"Not if you know what's good for you."

Uncle Finn laughed and swatted her with a dish towel.

Aunt Whitney then moved to kiss the crown of Sunny's head, but she was still looking at her husband. She then turned and walked out of the room. Uncle Finn watched her go. They had an actual relationship—one Sunny would never, ever have.

Her uncle left his now empty plate on the counter and sat back down across from her. "I'm not trying to give you a hard time, Sunny, but you know that you have to keep a low profile."

"Teenagers skip school. It's a known phenomenon."

He leaned forward so Sunny had no choice but to stare back at him. His hazel eyes were dark, like moss, and his neatly combed hair was slowly falling out. He seemed to be so somber and almost self loathing towards life, but Sunny saw through the ruse.

"You don't have the luxury to be like some teenagers. You have to be part of the majority. And I'm not saying you can't be yourself, but this is a small, suspicious town when it comes to newcomers so you're going to be in the spotlight for awhile. They'll want to know everything about you, especially things for good gossip. You know that." Then his expression softened and his eyes were clouded with concern. "Did you have a panic attack?"

"No. I just needed to get away."

"Did anyone see you?"

"Chief Swan pulled me over. He gave me a ticket for speeding."

Her uncle sat back in his chair, linking his hands behind his head, thinking. "Did he say anything?"

"He'd let this time slide."

After a few seconds, he nodded. "Okay." He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "Okay, you're right—this isn't a crisis."

Sunny didn't say anything. Usually she'd be boosting about the battle she had just won, but she didn't have any spirit left in her—at least, not at the moment. She was so tired that all she could do was stare at blankly at the kitchen floor and think that her family's dynamic really did make her life look like some shitty Lifetime movie.

She leaned her elbows on the table, resting her head in her hands. Her uncle's aura was so strong that she barely could contain the parasite in her from latching onto him. On the wall, the clock kept ticking, and it was driving her nuts. It only made the pounding in her head louder.

But she had been right. It wasn't a crisis, not yet. Except she couldn't help but feed off of that poor girl. The _pastor's_ daughter.

But there was no way to tell him exactly how that made her feel. There was no way to make him understand that none of his rules and crafty measures to keep her safe mattered.

She would always be the freak.

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 **Responses:**

IWishUCouldGoAway: You were the first review so I owe you a huge thanks. I debated if I wanted to mention the Institute so early in the story, but the reason why I did was because I knew from the get go that this wasn't going to a mystery story. I don't want to spend too much time on having you guys decipher her past that you'll overlook her character development and everything in between. Sunny will mostly be an open book because she's a teenager even if she has some unnatural abilities. And the story is set in 2002, a whole year before the Cullen family moved to Forks, and that means it'll be three years until Bella officially moves. I did read that from 1996–2002 Bella visited Charlie in Forks for one month in the summer so while we might not see Bella for awhile, there's a chance we'll hear about her.

Mousey Kimmy: Thank you. I hope you think the same of this chapter.

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 **Information/Credits/Disclaimers:  
**  
—All characters and events belong to Stephenie Meyer and to the publisher, Little, Brown and Company. Events from the movie(s) belong to the production and distribution companies.

—Gabriel is a character from L. J. Smith's _Dark Visions_ Trilogy. It was published in 1994–1995 by Simon & Schuster.

—This will not be a crossover, but L. J. Smith's characters will make an appearance from time to time.

—The information about Scotland during the early modern era of the seventeenth century and nineteenth century were gathered from the Wikipedia page (yes, I know, Wikipedia isn't a reliable source, but I managed to double check if it was correct. If it's not, I apologize.) _Economic history of Scotland_ and from a Scottish FAQ on Scottish history written by Steven Akins of that Ilk on siliconglen–dot–scot.

—I always try to throw real places into my stories so I did some digging, and on a real estate website I found that in Forks, Washington there is actually a road called End of Road as is Klahndike Boulevard.

—This chapter was not overlooked by a beta.

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 **If you liked this chapter, please favorite this story and review. It would be very helpful to get the next chapter going.**

 **Until next time.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Stay in school, kids, stay in school. Don't be like Sunny and constantly keep ditching. You won't like all the makeup work.**

 **I also hope that everyone is having a good New Years so far.**

 _*More information, along with credits and disclaimers, can be found below._

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 **Chapter 3:**

 _Forks, Washington_

 _The End of October, 2002_

The hallway was its usual scene. The jocks were hanging out against the lockers, the cheerleaders had blocked off an entire section, and the rest of the population was trying to get by. Stoners hung around too, just doing whatever the hell stoners do. A girl from art class zoomed by, practically hitting everyone with her swishing backpack.

And Sunny still hated being the new girl.

The cafeteria was just an uproar of noises and smells of floor wax and something that definitely wasn't real food.

She found a spot at the far end of the cafeteria, almost away from everyone else. The table did give her a nice view of the forest, though. She took out her prepaid phone and flipped it opened. She dialed the number scribbled on the first page of her notebook. It was a shot in the dark, but Sunny hoped that Rob hadn't switched phones just yet. She had missed talking to Anna, one of her only best friends. It sucked that she didn't like to use their telepathic connection more often. It was a hell of a lot easier to get in touch with everyone that way.

She was especially tired of trying to remember different phone numbers after so many months. It was just easier if she wrote them down. At least, that's what she had told her uncle when he had found a mountain of crumpled up paper in her trash can. He of course got on her case about that. She apparently wasn't being safe enough.

He had told her to use her head more often and then never brought it up again. Domestic harmony, thy name was Sunny.

The phone continued to ring in her ears. Once. Twice. Three times.

They weren't home, or they were out on a date. They were doing something besides picking up the damn phone. She thought about skipping again, this time just because she didn't want to be there. Her uncle would be pissed, though. She would then get another lecture on how school was important and how it was even more important for her to blend in. If she dared to point out that she would never fit in, she would just get another lecture on how she was her worst enemy by holding herself back.

Just because she could literally suck the life out of anyone at any given time for any given reason didn't mean she had the right to skip school. Not one bit. Even if a girl's life at was stake, she was still expected to get a full seven hours worth of useless education.

Some education. She knew that majority of smaller towns didn't always have the best resources for their advanced students, but Sunny was easily passing her most challenging classes. She wasn't sure if that was an all around good thing.

Her uncle could never complain about her grades, though. She was always an A+ student who made honor roll every year. Aunt Whitney was apparently the same way despite her teenage rebellion years that followed her into college which was initially the reasoning behind her dropping out. That was where she had met Uncle Finn, and even though Aunt Whitney left, he had followed through with his education and graduated. It seemed almost impossible to imagine her uncle as a gawky young adult, but she'd seen pictures.

Uncle Finn's mother had been big on pictures.

After what was probably the twentieth ring, Sunny closed the phone and shoved it back in her bag. She chewed on her thumbnail, that hurt like hell, wondering what Anna and Rob could possibly be doing. A scrape was still healing on her left knuckle from her locker. Other girls didn't have temperaments that got so out of control that they needed to physically hit something. Other girls didn't have to scrape up their bodies for the sake of keeping it cool. That had been yesterday, and it had gotten _bad_. She had to go to the nurse's office and lie about how she accidentally closed the locker on her hand.

Sometimes it was hard to tell where the lies began and where the truth ended. She was use to the bullshit posturing needed to be normal. There was so much to keep hidden from the world that she had grown accustomed to lying straight through her teeth without any issues.

She tried Anna and Rob one last time.

The phone just kept ringing.

"Fuck it," she said under her breath. She was just so over today. And she was pissed that the vending machine had ate her dollar.

She sat there for a second, though, staring at the phone in her hand. It was like sensory overload. She could actually smell the damp wool from students' clothing and the wetness left from the rain on the concrete and laminate floors. Even the smell of every person who passed by her table of one was getting to her. The swishing and squishing sound that came from four hundred and sixty-four shoes was driving her up the wall, and the food wasn't helping matters. It was an average school smell. It was pretty much the same in Maryland and San Carlos, but just like every other school, Forks had its regional differences with its own unique smells.

The crowd noise that was still growing hurt her ears and made her headache feel like a migraine. She was hungry, and she didn't have time to pack herself a lunch since her uncle had wanted her up and out the door at a certain time (her alarm clock had gone off late), but the thought of elbowing her way through the line, then hoping no one would steal her table—yes, she had declared it as hers—was just too much of a hassle.

If she went home, and her uncle was there for lunch, she would get a lecture. If she went home and he wasn't there, she would just have to put up with her aunt who worked from home. If she went through English and art class that afternoon she would go crazy, even though those were two of her favorites subjects and made her day slightly more enjoyable. And forget about the waste of time those elective classes were. She was positive that she had been given all the ones that no one wanted to be in. Not to mention that she was stuck in classes with jackasses now.

But none of her classes taught her anything real. She would rather get in her car and travel around the continental U.S.—going to art shows, places where people were just real and raw, and get together to explore the rest of the world.

She had met real people in California. The type you find in the hole-in-a-wall bar and drink the nastiest alcohol the place had to offer. She had felt her fair share of burning her throat as people cheered her on. She went to interesting places, too. Like the one bar where there were ram horns decorating the walls, and the owner looked like the grumpy old troll who lived under the bridge. There were many nightclubs with strobing lights and techno music running from the base into her sneakers. But there were also quaint suburban areas where the people were kind and everything was organic. A woman use to sit out on the front porch of her store every morning with a stack of newspapers next to her. The food was also amazing. There were places like that all over—where everyone had a set place but were happy about it.

If you were willing to pay, though. Experiences like that didn't come as free. Sometimes it was with money, other times with information. Then there were the times when company was the toll.

It was worth it.

It was always worth it at the end of the day.

Those experiences made up so many of Sunny's times, memories and had lodged a good thing in her soul.

She wondered if she would ever find a place like that in Forks. A good place to plug in. Those type of watering holes were hard to spot in a town like Forks, but Sunny was positive that she would be able to find one. Her ability had a lot to do with finding them so easily since her grandmother use to have her play "what hand is it in"—that game where you shut your eyes and try to guess what object she had, and which hand it was in.

But finding a place to get away sounded better than the bullshit lectures she'd get at home instead. So Sunny turned and went down the hall, towards the gym doors that led to the track and soccer field. She could make a shortcut out of the forest if she followed the one trail because besides the roads that led to everywhere in town, the forest also led to almost everywhere, too. She still had that extra twenty her aunt had slipped her that morning, and it was more than enough for her to get a large hot coffee at the local café. That way no one would bother her while she tried to chase her headache away.

It was still cold, but by now it was downright freezing. The chilled air felt like a solid slap in the face and only made her headache worse. It even took her breathe away with every inhale. Sunny walked with her head down to avoid the stinging of her eyes and squinted them at her knit-trimmed ankle combat boots. Her nose immediately started to run.

 _What a fucking choice. Skip school and freeze my ass off, or stay where it's warm and kill some poor girl._

"Hey! Hey, new girl!"

Even though it definitely wasn't a teacher, Sunny kept her head down and posture the same. Footsteps still walked over dead leaves, crunching behind her. She wiped her running nose on the sleeve of her jacket. She almost wished that it was a teacher because then she could easily come up with an excuse and be on her way.

"Hey! Slaughter!" The voice was male.

Sunny groaned at her luck. Bullies usually didn't bother with her. She was that invisible and strange that people wanted nothing to do with her. But when she did turn around she planted her feet and squared her shoulders. Just because people hadn't messed with her in the past didn't mean it would be the same as before.

She barely recognized the boy who was jogging up to her. He was African American. They shared history together, or maybe it was biology.

He was tall, almost too tall. His brown rain coat flapped around his thighs. He flicked the collars up, protecting his slightly pink dusted cheeks from the nipping cold. He seemed to be in good physical shape; he didn't even wheeze once he reached her. His eyes were a dark brown, nothing too special. Sunny figured he'd age well the older he got.

He wasn't in that funny in between stage most people their age went through. He was pretty sturdy and well put together. Someone got the good draw of the gene pull.

Sunny waited. Finally, he spoke. "Want some weed?"

"No." _Hell, yes._ She took a closer look at him and saw that his nose and cheekbones were at war. They almost made his face look younger than what he was, but there was no doubt that he was sixteen.

Sunny took a step back, ready to turn on her heel and continue on walking. The guys energy was soothing enough, and the colors were a mix between oranges and greens. But that didn't mean she wanted him to stick around. If her uncle could see her now, he'd have a fit if he knew that she was trying to blow the poor kid off.

 _Apparently all I need is one normal friend._

Sunny didn't think that was ever going to happen.

The guy dug in his pockets and pulled out a crumpled up bag of weed. He then fished out a pipe. He put the two together and held it out to her. "You want a hit?"

 _What. The. Fuck?_

Sunny stared at him like he had two heads. Hadn't he heard what people were saying about her? Didn't he listen to a word the blonde girl whispered in his ears whenever she got the chance to hang off of his arms?

"No, I don't," she said like she was talking to a little child. What she wanted was a hot coffee, a cream cheese bagel and a quiet place to sit and collect her thoughts. She wanted people to stop looking at her like she was some kind of alien. All she wanted was to be left the hell alone. "Did Renner give out homework?"

He shrugged. He took a drag on the pipe and exhaled through his nose expertly. He didn't even hack his lungs up.

"Banner," he said when the smoke had cleared. So they shared biology together. "I don't think so. The guy doesn't believe in it so he tries not give any."

 _Thank the Lord for teacher's like that._

Sunny stood there with no real purpose. She didn't have anything to say so she settled for a shrug. "See ya."

"Are you skipping?" He quickly fell into step with her, ignoring the fact that she obviously didn't want to talk to him. "You don't stay in school much."

"There's no point in dealing with it."

"I know a few places. You play video games?" He took another hit. Sunny could finally smell it. "I'm Tyler."

 _I don't care._ "Cool." She looked down at her boots. He waited patiently for her to respond. "Sunny."

"Sunny," he repeated. "Like Sonny and Cher, or You Are my Sunshine, Sunny?" She told him it was like the child's nursery rhyme. "I like it. You're new. 'Bout a month now. Welcome to Forks."

Sunny almost snorted. _Wasn't someone an observant fellow?_ She tried to come up with some way to ditch him as they crossed the soccer field, neither one caring if they were caught. He was kind enough to shorten his strides out of respect for Sunny's shorter limbs. Even though his aura was the furthest from being a threat, she still sized him up since she hadn't found a way to get rid of him. She gave herself the best chance of winning in a fight. While he was tall and had a decent amount of mass to him, he didn't look much like a fighter.

She could hear her father, uncle and aunt now screaming in her head as she entered the forest with a kid _she didn't even know_. She continued to check his aura, also making sure that she was in control of herself. It made her headache worse, but she dipped into his mind a few times just to double check. Then she also kept a careful watch of his hands. He seemed like he was an okay kind of guy. At least she could kill him at the drop of a hat if he tried anything.

He tried again. "Where are you from?"

"Maryland." She didn't know why everyone was slightly fascinated by the answer. It was only a two days worth of getting there by car.

She never mentioned California, though. That wasn't information that she cared to pass on. People didn't really want to get to know her anyway. They were just interested to see if she would live up to their expectations within the two seconds of speaking to her. And, by now, anyone could take a wild guess that she never lived up to anyone's.

"Baltimore?" He guessed. She nodded her head. "Yeah, you sound like a Baltimorean. How are you liking Forks so far? And the weather? It's gonna snow soon."

Sunny rolled her eyes. She had been told on multiple occasions that she sounded a bit southern, and at times Scottish, but no one ever really picked up on her lingo and sayings.

"Thanks for letting me know." The sarcasm oozed from her mouth effortlessly.

"No problem. It snows a lot during this time of year."

Sunny glanced over in his direction and found him smiling at her. It wasn't creepy, or suggestive—it was a God's honest genuine smile. His hair was tied up into dreads, which actually suited his proud, baby fat face. His pudgy, wide nose was putting up a good fight against the miserable cold. And he wasn't wearing gloves.

He never stopped smiling, and it slowly compelled Sunny to twitch the ends of her lips. "You're fingers are turning blue."

He beamed at her. She saw that there actually flecks of gold in his brown eyes, framed by thick, long lashes that girls would kill for. Boys always got the best lashes even though they never did anything with them.

"I, uh, left them in the janitor's closet." His smile turned crooked and there was a silver of something mischievous in his eyes.

"I hope she was worth it. They'll fall right off."

They came to the opening of the forest where the path was. Frost was already coating the bare branches and fallen leaves that made the trail look like some sort of fairytale setting. The mist rolled down from the mountains. When they ducked under the branches that hung close to their heads, the brick building started to disappear until they could no longer see it.

Tyler snorted as he took another drag. The smoke almost seemed to freeze due to the frigid air before it evaporated. "Oh, it was worth it."

"I bet," Sunny said cheekily as she stepped over a tree root.

"Maybe I'll show you sometime." He shot her a wink over his shoulder. Taking precautions because she didn't know the guy from Adam, Sunny found that he was just messing with her. No harm, no foul. "You never said if you liked to play video games."

"I've never really played."

"I'll show you," he said. That damned smile still hadn't left his face. "Life in Forks can be pretty boring without a friend."

Sunny almost tripped over her own two feet as his words brought her back to the shitty reality that was her life. She couldn't have a friend— _she didn't need a friend_. Besides, she already had Anna and Gabriel. They were her best friends, and they were all she needed. Having a completely normal friend was just stupid. It was also asking for trouble. And she wasn't going to be stupid, not this time around. She would keep her head down and mouth shut, and hopefully she would graduate without any bumps in the road that made her center of attention and be on her way into the world.

"Thanks, but I can't." It wasn't a complete lie, but Sunny still couldn't help the guilt that bubbled up in her. He was just trying to be nice. But there was someone like him at every school—hoping to make a friend out of the new girl. "I have to go see my therapist today."

She stressed the word therapist as much as she could without looking mental. She hoped that the little bit of information would set him off, making him realize that there was something wrong with her. She hoped that he would then run back to the blonde female who was attached to his hip and tell her what he learned. Then, if all went right, as it should in the cosmic law of high school hierarchy, the blonde would have everyone informed that Sunny was seeking professional help for some sort of trauma that she would most likely makeup, but the gossip would spread faster than any wildfire in history. Then, and only then, would everyone finally see Sunny as a freak and leave her the fuck alone.

But Tyler decided to flip the script on her.

"That's cool." He didn't even sound curious. He just kept smiling and his aura never changed. Sunny dipped into his mind again and was completely shocked that he didn't plan to tell anyone. "There's always next time. But you shouldn't be walking in the woods alone. Mountain lions and bears sometimes get too close."

Tyler continued to move along, merrily smoking as he went with the leaves crunching under his shoes.

Absolutely gobsmacked, Sunny had no choice but to follow him into town.

 **.**

The Licensed Professional Counselor and Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist Loren Lynnfield was nothing like Sunny had expected. He had insisted that she call him Loren, as he did so with all his teenage and adult clients. It was one of his ways to build rapport the fastest way possible with whoever he was seeing. His office was roomy and warm; it almost reminded Sunny of an apartment instead of one of the many rooms that the building supplied by renting the space out. He had about five degrees lined up on the wall, all facing Sunny. The furnishing was nice so business must've been going well enough for him. He had no wife or children. Sunny took note that he didn't have a wedding ring, and there were no pictures of any kind sitting on his desk, or hanging up on his walls. She then wondered at how effective he was at marriage and family counseling. His desk was completely clean, not a single paper or pen in sight. He didn't even have one now.

They had gone through the mandatory introduction of exchanging names, pleasant greetings—he had looked her in the eye and said, "Pleasure to meet you, Sunny,"—and with Loren giving a brief description of what she could be expecting. And then a bit of small talk occurred.

The small talk was very brief to give Sunny room to take the small conversation in whatever direction she liked. Throughout the pre-session talk, Loren observed and inferred Sunny's state of mind: happy, sad, phlegmatic, excited, etc. And since it was her first session, Loren noted the sort of first impression she was making on him. He already noticed a few problems—poor eye contact, low energy, an anxious demeanor—but didn't mention it at that point. He did make a mental note to raise the issue at an appropriate time, though.

He asked if she wanted anything to drink. Sunny took the offer and asked for coffee. He made it fresh right there with her watching.

Sunny took refuge on the sofa as she was instructed to make herself at home. Loren passed her her cup of coffee and took his seat across from her, and the moment that she had been dreading was beginning.

"I'd like to make a recording of the session for you. Clients find it valuable to listen again to sessions, but I didn't want to do that without your permission. Is that okay? And do you want me to make an mp3, which I'll email you, or even an audio cassette?"

Sunny didn't mind the recording. But she didn't want or need a copy of it.

He pressed the start button. "I've just had the pleasure of spending the last hour or so reading and meditating on the new-client questionnaire you sent me. Great, and I have a bunch of questions."

"Great," was the only response Sunny could muster and it definitely lacked conviction.

"How often do you meet up with friends?"

Sunny blinked. That hadn't been the question she was expecting. Weren't therapists supposed to go for the nitty gritty aspects of one's life?

"Not much," she offered to say. "I'm still new in town."

Loren nodded his head, thoughtfully.

He didn't miss the fact she didn't mention if she had made any friends at all. "That's right; you recently moved in with your aunt and uncle. Tell me, Sunny, do you feel like you can really talk with your family?"

"I don't know, I guess. I don't tell them everything, but we're all pretty open to each other. Sure, we all have our secrets, but it's never anything major."

She grew up in an open household where she was encouraged to speak her mind. She was use to people being loud and opinionated. But, at the same time, she was sixteen years old. What teenager didn't go through their own stage of keeping secrets from the paternal figures in their life because they somehow conjured up the ridiculous thought that they would never understand, even though those adults went through exact same things? She was being truthful about not keeping anything major a secret. Ever since her mother's death, Sunny's family had been practically close to another, sharing every bit of detail of their lives that they could. She thought that they were sometimes a little _too_ close, especially when too much information had been shared.

"Is there anyone who you feel really understands you and is close to you in your family then?"

Sunny started to shake her head. There was no way that anyone in her family could truly understand her. Her father and Aunt Whitney had tried for years, though. They wanted to make her feel less alone in the world and make her see that there wasn't anything wrong with her, but nothing ever worked. Sunny always reassured them that she was fine. They shouldn't worry about her so much, that she could take care of herself; and years down the line, they started to believe her. So she continued to put her brave face on and kept her tormenting thoughts and feelings to herself. The only one who saw through it all was her uncle. He had always been the one to call her out on her bullshit. He always didn't have the best approach, and lacked certain bouts of empathy, but Sunny always knew that he was coming from a place of love. That she was always sure of it.

"Well…." she paused, cutting Loren off from asking his next question. His eyes encouraged her to continue her sentence. "...my uncle and I are pretty close."

He didn't ask about her parents like she had thought he would. "Do you feel like he understands you?"

"To a point."

"And that point would be…."

"We both know how to fake a smile."

Loren exhaled slowly, nodding his head. His face morphed into a deep understand of some sort. But he looked genuinely pleased to be making progress. "Tell me about it."

And so she did. She talked about her aunt and uncle; how, five years before she had been born, they were expecting their first child and how different her uncle use to be. Everything was fine—perfect, in fact, until the day of the delivery. No one had suspected a thing, there were no signs of anything that could've possibly went wrong. But when her aunt had given the final push, the baby hadn't been crying. The umbilical cord was wrapped around its neck so tightly that the doctors couldn't get the scissors wedged between it in time. But it was pointless to try and save the child; the infant had been strangled to death by the cord all the while her aunt had been pushing. The baby had been black and blue, bloody and covered in substances similar to mucus. After the child had been cleaned off, everyone had gotten a chance to say goodbye. Sunny had been told that the infant was ice cold to the touch, stiff, and just dull in complexion. All the life was truly gone from the poor child who hadn't even started life yet, and from that point on, her uncle was never the same.

Then Sunny had been born. December 26th, 1986 at 12:57 P.M. had been a good day for them all. Finally, a baby had been born after the tragedy, and after so many years of her parents trying. Her aunt had quickly taken to her, but it had been her uncle who kept his distance. Sunny could recall countless times throughout her childhood when her uncle had openly expressed his interest of staying away from her, or simply not showing up at all. And Sunny hadn't told anyone about seeing and knowing their emotions, or reading their thoughts until the physic at the fairgrounds who happened to be the real deal like Sunny, had opened the can of worms. Ever since she was a child, and after her mother's death, Sunny learned to be convincing enough so her father wouldn't fret over her too much. He needed time to grieve, too.

And it had been her Uncle Finn who was able to finally make her cry. She held every single one in, fooling her father and Aunt Whitney, but she could never fool her uncle. And at the same time, he knew her so well that he took her back to his car and just let her cry. He didn't say anything, he didn't even offer her comfort, his presence was just enough to know that he was there as she bawled her eyes out until there were no more tears to cry. That day had created some sort of unspoken bond between the two even though they butted heads more than ever now.

"You look up to him," Loren said after she had finished. His eyes looked her up and down, analyzing her in a way that made her nervous. "And his opinion is very important to you."

Sunny didn't like how he gathered all that from her depressing story. Now she knew how others felt when she hinted at what was on their mind. And that was the strangest part of it all, Sunny couldn't hear a thing from Loren's thoughts; not even a tiny whisper. It was locked down like Fort Knox.

But she didn't want to think about that. She was here to get things off her chest, not pile new issues to the ever growing list. "He's my Jiminy Cricket even when I'm not asking for his advice."

"That's good," Loren said. "We all need someone to get us to second guess ourselves."

"Really? Aren't you supposed to say that others influencing you is bad or something?"

"There's something you should know about me: I don't always follow the conventional side." Sunny stared into his eyes. They seemed to be bottomless.

"That's good, I guess," Sunny said softly. Feeling suddenly bold, she said, "I'm not the most conventional person."

Loren's brows went up. "Then you and I are going to get along swimmingly."

Sunny desperately wanted to know what he was thinking. It wasn't very often that she came across someone she couldn't read. And while it usually never bothered her since it was nice feeling normal around someone, she couldn't help but feel the itch that pricked the back of her mind. She didn't like feeling opened and vulnerable to someone who she couldn't even get a solid read on. She had learned that she couldn't just go off of people's auras alone. Some were skilled at faking an emotion so perfectly that it surrounded their being, shadowing their true one completely.

So, she watched his eyes instead. He didn't say anything for a moment. Then, slowly, he reached out and powered off the recorder. Sunny's eyes never left his.

"Do you like poetry, Sunny?" He asked suddenly.

She shook her head.

"It's therapeutic for the soul. Especially for those who have a harder time expressing themselves, reading poetry can have a similar positive effect as writing it. It allows one to see into the soul of another person, see what is weighing on their minds and on their hearts, and can open doors to feelings that are sometimes suppressed until that door is opened. Reading can shine a light on all those dark and hidden crevices of the heart and mind once thought permanently closed off to the world."

Sunny's snort came out like a small huff. "I don't think poetry is for me." She didn't need another form of seeing into other people's souls and minds.

" _I am learning a little—never to be sure—To be positive only with what is past, And to peer sometimes at the things to come; As a wanderer treading the night; When the mazy stars neither point nor beckon, And of all the roads, no road is sure."_

"Who's that by?" She wondered. It sounded beautiful, especially coming from Loren's deep timber voice.

Loren smirked at her, triumphant and pleased with himself. "That's your homework for tonight. Find out the author and name of the poem, read it, and then I would like for you to tell me your interpretation of it when you we see each other again."

Sunny made a face of displeasure.

Now she was getting homework from her therapist, too?

 _This blows._

* * *

 **Responses:**

IWishUCouldGoAway: Sunny won't have too many canon friends. I gather that it'll be around one or two. As for the OC friends, Sunny will always be close with them, always. But who knows? Maybe Bella will become something of a friend to her in the future. We still have some time to go before the romance begins, and for the Cullens to move to town!

FriendlyNeighborhoodHufflepuff: Thank you so much! And Sunny will be a poor Sunny for quite some time unfortunately.

* * *

 **Information/Credits/Disclaimers:  
**  
—All characters and events belong to Stephenie Meyer and to the publisher, Little, Brown and Company. Events from the movie(s) belong to the production and distribution companies.

—Anna and Rob are characters from L. J. Smith's _Dark Visions Trilogy_. It was published in 1994–1995 by Simon & Schuster.

—This will not be a crossover, but L. J. Smith's characters will make an appearance from time to time.

—Everyone knows who Jiminy Cricket is, right?

—The poem recited is the second stanza of Carl Sandburg's (1878–1967) _Experince_.

—This chapter was not overlooked by a beta.

* * *

 **If you liked this chapter, please review and favorite this story. It would be very helpful to get the next chapter going.**

 **Until next time.**


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